BASF Combines Businesses For Water, Oilfield And Mining Solutions To Support Growth Strategies

• Water solutions and oilfield and mining solutions to form new global business unit
• Efficiency measures for water solutions include reduction of personnel, portfolio changes and specific investments
• Plan to divest industrial water management business in France

BASF will combine its businesses with water solutions and oilfield and mining solutions effective April 1, 2013, to increase efficiency and support its growth strategies. The new global business unit will be located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

“By combining the strengths of these businesses, sharpening our focused market approach and at the same time increasing operational and innovation excellence, we are in a good position to advance innovative solutions to the water, oilfield and mining industries,” said Hans W. Reiners, President of BASF’s Performance Chemicals division.

BASF offers a wide range of products for key processes of industrial and municipal water treatment, products for the drilling and completion of oil wells and mineral processing reagents for the mining industry. All three businesses include parts of the polyacrylamide (PAM) value chain. With the combination of these businesses BASF is taking various steps to increase efficiency and operational excellence in its PAM operations. Significant investments are planned to upgrade the performance of existing production plants, create additional capacity, strengthen R&D efforts and establish a new bio-acrylamide process for further cost optimization.

Measures taken to drive efficiency
As part of its world -wide operational improvement program for its water solutions business, the company expects to reduce its workforce by about 215 positions worldwide. Most of the planned job reductions will occur at the Bradford and Grimsby, UK sites. “The planned comprehensive measures are needed to achieve cost competitiveness. These efforts will be backed by considerable investments in new technologies in Europe as well as in North America and in R&D,” said Reiners. BASF expects to complete the planned measures at the latest by end of 2015.

Within the future setup, the PAM product line and the respective operations will be jointly managed for all three businesses following an integrated PAM strategy covering both, cationic and anionic PAM in order to generate additional value.

Water solutions to divest industrial water management business
BASF’s water solutions business will in future fully concentrate on providing innovative chemical solutions to the water market. To this end the company is planning to divest its service-oriented industrial water management business, located in Lyon, France, to a strategic partner capable to further expand the business and giving the current 61 employees a long-term perspective.

About BASF
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of €72.1 billion in 2012 and more than 110,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN).

For more information, visit www.basf.com.

About BASF Water, Oilfield and Mining Solutions
BASF offers a wide range of solutions and products for the water-, oilfield- and mining industry. The product range of global water solutions include products used in the key processes of industrial and municipal water treatment. The business is a leading supplier of products to clarify the raw water used for the production of drinking water, treating the waste water stream and reducing sludge. Within our global oilfield solutions business, we help the oilfield service industry make efficient formulations. Our portfolio comprises products for the drilling and completion of oil wells as well as chemicals for continuous and cost efficient production of valuable oil and gas resources. We develop next generation of surfactants and polymers designed to support enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations by means of chemical injection. Global mining solutions offer an extensive range of mineral processing reagents. Our strengths are in solid/liquid separation and solvent extraction; we also offer reagents for flotation, dispersing, agglomerating and others. For more information, visit www.watersolutions.basf.com, www.basf.com/oilfieldsolutions and www.basf.com/miningsolutions